The end of the world is God’s secret

The fear and panic in the world today could kill easier than Corona virus. Fear can lead to despair hence we must not forget that life and death are in God’s hands. Our future is God’s secret so we must not let our hearts be troubled (John 14:1). Jesus says, “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not alarmed for this is something that must happen, but the end will not be yet…. Many false prophets will arise, they will deceive many and with the increase of lawlessness, love in most people will grow cold; but anyone who stands firm to the end will be saved” (Matthew 24:6-14).  I was deeply touched with the questions we were asked on Wednesday 8th of April 2020 in our presentation at the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA). This was during the interactive session with the public in a program anchored by the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC); Abrahamic Mission and NTA. Some people believe that COVID 19 is God’s instrument to punish the world. Others think that God wants to let the world know that he is still in charge and that everybody must submit to the divine authority which is supreme. Some think that God is using COVID 19 to restructure the world.

This panic in the world shows that human beings still value their individual lives at a time when terrorists, bandits, insurgents, kidnappers and all sorts of criminal activities had let human blood flow like a river. Before now, the dignity of the human person had been thrown into the winds. Human beings have been used for experiments to test the human endurance of poverty and hunger virus that had killed uncountable number of the poor and deprived people in a nation where in the abundance of water, many people are still thirsty. The deaths caused by hunger, lack of social amenities, hospital facilities, power supply, good roads and poor governance had not raised the kind of alarm that is now sounding in the whole world. Now we know that the rich also have tears to shed in the face of COVID 19. Scientists and those who had claimed to have the power to see tomorrow are now jittering like termites. They have lost the capacity to predict the future. They are now in doubt about the sustenance of human life as they wait in fear and expectation of whatever lies ahead. This could be miraculous restoration or abysmal despair of when humanity would be effaced from the earth. For now, even the atheists look up to God who alone knows when and the scourge will end.

The pandemic in the world today is not the first that has brought the world and humanity to bow in submission and adoration to the Supreme being. Now we know that competition for human supremacy is vanity. The world powers that are competing for supremacy with nuclear and biological weapons may now understand the meaning of “return to sender.” It is does who romance with snakes that die of snake venom. Now may we think clearly. What if God is using the COVID 19 pandemic to call the world to turn away from all forms of scientific and technological idols to worship Him and Him alone? In the history of salvation, the people of Israel were confronted with pestilence, hunger, war and suffering that were the result of human pride akin to the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9). With all the technology and material wealth in the world, God is telling human beings that humanity remains the work of his divine hand.

Let us cry to God with psalms of lamentations: “O God, why do you cast us off forever? Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture? Remember your people, which you have ransomed of old, which you have redeemed to be the tribe of your heritage! Remember Mount Zion, where you have dwelt.  Direct your steps to the perpetual ruins; the enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary! Your foes have roared in the midst of your meeting place; they set up their own signs for signs” (Psalm 74:1-4). Let us acknowledge our limitations as human beings: There is no prophet, and there is none among us who knows how long this will last (Psalm 74: 9). Let us from our homes individually turn to God for deliverance. Do not deliver the soul of your dove to Corona virus, do not forget the life of your poor forever (Psalm 74: 19).

So many people and schools of thought had reacted either positively or erroneously to the mystery of human existence and expectations. The church has tried in interpreting the prophecy of the end time within the context of revelation, but opposed to the teaching of the church were the ancient Christian Sects, Gnostics, Manichaeans and Origenists who asserted an entire annihilation of the physical world. The philosophical systems of antiquity called Stoicism taught that the world will indeed be destroyed in an eternal cycle, but will emerge again in exactly the same form as it was previously. St Paul attests: “The fashion of this world passes away” (1Corinthians 7:31; 15:24). Peter foretell the destruction of the world by fire: “The day of the Lord shall come as a thief, in which the heavens shall pass away with great violence and the elements shall be melted with heat, and earth and the works which are in it shall be no longer found” (2 Peter 3:10).

In the ancient Christian tradition, belief in the destruction of the present world is frequently attested. Tertullian speaks of a world-conflagration in which “the aged world and all its products will be consumed.” St Augustine stresses that the present world will not be entirely destroyed, but merely altered: “The form will pass away, but not the nature”. As to the manner of the destruction of the world nothing definite can be said either from the standpoint of natural science or from the standpoint of revelation. Saint Pope John Paul II in his discourse at a general audience on the 20th of August 1986 says that for the Christian the mystery of the beginning of the world is intimately linked with the mystery of the end in which the finality of all creation reaches its fulfillment. This is why it is important to prepare for the end of individual life. We need to live happily on earth so that happiness will not be a strange thing to us in heaven.

I love this reflection of Sr. Prof. Teresa Okure SHCJ that “This pandemic helps families to stay together in their Sunday worship and maybe in all their prayers. Parents will have time for their children and assume the God-given responsibility to accompany them during the worship and explain to them the different parts of the Mass. We hope so. We recall that the Jewish religion of all the ancient religions was first and foremost a way of life and a religion of the family starting with the Passover meal (Exodus 12:1-11) which foreshadowed our Lord’s Supper. Today we call it Mass. Each family was to celebrate it, and if a family was too small to finish the sacrificial lamb they were to join with another family (verse 13). The early Christians celebrated the Lord’s Supper in private homes, what biblical scholars call “house churches” (cf. Acts 2:46). A number of the key house churches were owned by women (Mary the mother of John Mark: Acts 12:12; Lydia: Acts 16, 5, 40). Or married couples (Pricilla and Aquila: Romans 16:3-5). In view of all this, we need not protest too much over locked church buildings. We need rather to ask pardon for ourselves and for others, especially Christians, who have shut their ears to what Jesus tells us about our God-given identity and worth.” Let us pray that we may rise again with Jesus Christ to change our negative attitudes and review our values during and after this Easter celebration!

Rev. Fr. Cornelius Omonokhua is the Executive Secretary of Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC [email protected]) & The Secretary General of the West Africa Inter-Religious Council (WA-IRC – [email protected])